There’s recently been a good deal of debate about the rights and wrongs of swearing and violence on TV, so we thought we’d take a look at these issues and ask your opinion on the rights and wrongs of it.

F-ing chefs

Let’s start with the issue of swearing and of course, one for whom swearing is virtually a trademark is Gordon Ramsay, who even has a show entitled, The F Word.

Gordon’s made a niche for himself in the over-populated world of TV chefs because of his constant use of the F word… but is it a bad thing?

Comedian Frank Skinner recently commented to The Sun that TV chefs swear in order to look “more manly” because they do “women’s work”. Obviously, Frank meant this in a tongue-in-cheek way, but perhaps he’s not so far off the mark.

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OFCOM has issued a report criticising British soaps for showing excessive amounts of violence before the watershed.

OFCOM singled out ITV soap, Emmerdale, in its report after it received numerous complaints about the violence shown surrounding the kidnap of Tom and Sadie King.

According to Ofcom, one of the scenes contained a “significant amount of blood” and a close-up of the character’s injury.

ITV defended the scenes stating:

“Whilst Emmerdale stories do not condone violent acts, it need not and should not shy away from them,” the broadcaster told Ofcom.

It said it had reached an “appropriate balance between dramatic entertainment and offence”.